Mini Vacation- Villarica

     You know that one chilean volcano that exploded last year right? Sometime in northern hemisphere spring. The pictures were all over Instagram. Anyway, when I was just a freshman dreaming about chile, I saw the pictures. And I guess I kind of figured that the volcano was further south. Like in Patagonia. It seemed like all those tiny islands could easily house active volcanos. Ok, you may not remember the name of this elusive volcano, but it’s name is Villarica. And um, that volcano is in my region (like state). That means that its hell-a close to Temuco (where I live). It might seem scary to live next to an active volcano, but its just part of living in chile. I know for a fact that there are at least 3 others closer to Temuco than Villarica. So yeah. I think it’s kind of cool. My chileans don’t seemed fazed by it so it doesn’t bother me. 

     Anyway, a few weeks ago me and my family went and visited the town where this volcano resides. It’s a cute little touristy town due to the volcanic lakes that reside near by. Down this far there cold lakes, but if you go up the volcano more, there are hot springs, or so I'm told. The lakes are lovely. It's a nice thing to have a little break from salt water, and go back to normal sweet water. The only complaint that some people have, is that there aren't really beaches. And the few that do exist have black sand. But ehh. I can live with black sand. Plus it's cool that it's from all of the volcanic explosions. 

     We stayed with some primos of my chilean mom. They also had an exchange student from the US a few years ago, and their daughter went to Germany. So it was really cool to talk with them and swap stories. Plus my chilean mom no longer thinks I'm crazy for running around barefoot and eating "weird" things. It was a fun weekend.

one of the beaches in Villarica

same beach, different angle. note the black sand?

my camera doesn't do well with taking panoramas where there's boring stuff.
It only wants you to see the pretty stuff, so it skips over some of the middle parts.

 my chilean family <3
can you tell that I'm the only one who swam?

this is the volcano now
it's like a sleeping giant

chilean sunsets are amazing